Which line from the importance of being earnest best makes this point? “where did the charitable gentleman who had a first-class ticket for this seaside resort find you? ” “yes, lady bracknell. i was in a hand-bag—a somewhat large, black leather hand-bag, with handles to it—an ordinary hand-bag in fact.” “to be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life . .” “may i ask you then what you would advise me to do? i need hardly say i would do anything in the world to ensure gwendolen’s happiness.”

If you are referring to this point: Oscar Wilde uses humor to critique society and show that there is too much concern about coming from a proper family.

I believe the correct answer is: “To be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life . . .”

     In his dramatic work “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Oscar Wild often uses irony and humor to critique the norms and “moral” of the society in Victorian era. One of the examples for that is this line:

“To be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life . . .”

     As it shows the needless concern of the type of the bag Ernest was found in, but which indicate the wealth of the family to Lady Bracknell. Ernest states that there is no contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life when you are born in a hand-bag, no matter if it was large, black leather hand-bag, with handles to it or not.

below i present a summary with the most relevant aspects of chapter 2, which were taken from karangan bahasa inggeris (english essays) spm: argumentative essays.

tuna wira

credit to mohana ram murugiah.

i hope to be of

teacher smiles at the students who wait for his signal to sit down. he nods briefly and the students sit down and get ready for the lesson to start. there is an air of quiet expectancy when teacher refers to the unusual things found underneath their houses that morning. whispers of bags of rice ran among the students and a student muttered reluctantly that the rice is rent for the landlord. this starts off the discussion on the issue of paying rent for the use of the landowner’s land. da wan raises the question of why the landlord owns the land rather than the farmer although they have spent a lot of time farming it. the three reasons of labour, need and inheritance are listed as reasons for the landlord’s ownership of the land. they are discussed and dismissed as inadequate reasons. they suggested a system of collective farming to the farmers. the headmaster comes down the corridor to observe the lesson. teacher very quickly changed the lesson to a geography wesson. the students followed his cue and no one gave the slightest notice < of the headmaster ‘s presence. when the headmaster leaves, teacher explains the implications of winning the scholarship. it involves bearing respontsibilities and the scholarship holder should master what is useful and return to the village. he should understand the injustices in the present system and change it to a fairer system. then, he announces the wiimnuir of the scholarship to be dawan.

just took the test;

argument: "it's time to wage a war against britain to secure american freedom."

claims: "america has tried every peaceful method available for seperating from england" & "the americans' petitions to the king have been turned away by him."